Abstract Details
Hydrodynamic Instabilities of Radiative Blast Waves
Author: In T. Kim
Requested Type: Poster Only
Submitted: 2009-04-21 15:44:43
Co-authors: H.J. Quevedo, W. Bang, D.R. Symes, J. Osterhoff, R. Faustlin, M. Maurer, A.C. Bernstein, A.S. Moore, E.T. Gumbrell, A.D. Edens, R.A. Smith, T. Ditmire
Contact Info:
TCHILS - The University of Texas at Austin
Fusion Research Center, The Un
Austin, Texas 78712
United States of Ame
Abstract Text:
Radiative blast waves exhibiting hydrodynamic instabilities are of interest in the field of astrophysics because of the role they play in the formation of large-scale structure in supernova remnants (SNR). The Vishniac Overstability, which proposes that ripples on the shock surface can oscillate and grow if the shock shell is sufficiently thin, may explain the formation of these large-scale structures. With suitable conditions, blast waves have been created in the laboratory by irradiating a jet of clustering gas with a high-intensity laser pulse. By using high Z gases these blast waves can become radiative leading to shock-shell thinning and a deviation from their adiabatic Sedov-Taylor expansion. In our experiments, we produce cylindrical blast waves with an induced perturbation by initially destroying the cluster medium in spatially periodic locations using a second laser pulse. A variably delayed (up to ~100 ns) probe beam is used to image these blast waves at different times. This method allows us to study the temporal behavior of the initial perturbations and make comparisons with the Vishniac instability model. We will present initial experiments that have shown some evidence of this oscillatory behavior.
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